10M HDTVs sold, 15.5M by end of 2005

[randycat99]

Hence the real limiting factors come from the characteristics of the signal medium- in most cases, the digital feed (because honestly, how descriptive is something if it works out to "infinity"?). What is the smallest level it can represent before actually being "off". We already know this level should nearly/seamlessly align with the black point if the calibration is correct (can't have the signal just leap out in discrete blocks from absolute darkness, for instance- it should be just on the verge of visual detection). Once the bottom end of the digital range is fixed, then there are only so many prescribed steps available to give a range to full-on levels. Being that you cannot scale this range arbitrarily (for any maximum brightness) w/o sacrificing the smoothness of transitions from one step to the next over this range, that will essentially place a "proper" limit on the maximum brightness that is achievable. With all of these conditions in place, the "real"/operational contrast ratio will fall far short of "infinity", in real practice. (Note, this was not to say that the "infinite fullscreen CR in a darkroom" thing is not really true- just putting in a qualifying point before anyone gets too excited about infinite contrast ratios suddently being within their reach)

 

[MfA]

Well assuming brightness is calibrated correctly and it doesnt drift appreciably, then the contrast ratio is determined by the noise level ... but even then dark room full screen contrast ratio of most CRTs might as well be infinite, they are so good in this respect that there isnt really much point improving upon.

Actually I was wrong, not all active emitters can give true black in a dark room (plasma cant).

 

[randycat99]

Yes, noise level, black level- these are all things very closely associated, if not synonamous for the purposes of calibrating to viewing room conditions. It all points to the same realization that no one truly has a "dark" viewing room that truly corresponds to 0 lumens. It may be a few lumens, or maybe even quite a few lumens. Given that you no longer have that "0" to divide by, that infinite rating becomes pretty elusive in real practice. I didn't mean to diminush the capabilities of CRT's, however. I still want to point out that the real CR bottleneck in all of these display technologies will lie...in the digital feed, if it isn't already.

 

[MfA]

No, in a lit room the bottlenecks are the reflectiveness of the display and the amount of light you can output on a screen before it starts to hurt your eyes